"It's a shame that we lost this game, but there are seven games in the whole series, and the wins and losses of one game don't mean anything, and although the Pacers are strong, it doesn't mean that we don't have a chance." In the post-match press conference, Rick Carlisle said with a little regret in an interview with reporters.

It can be said that in addition to the result of this game, as well as Stackhouse's continuous leakage on the defensive end at the last moment, Rick Carlisle is still relatively satisfied with other places, and his pre-game arrangements have indeed played a very good role, but the Pistons are obviously not as sophisticated as the Pacers in terms of the rhythm of the game and the distribution of physical strength, in the last few minutes of the game, Artest, who defended Meng Xu, and Starhouse were almost unable to run, which was simply fatal to the Pistons, Maybe that's the playoff experience gap. The difference between the Pistons, who have been on the verge of the playoffs for many years, and the Pacers, who have reached the Finals and won the O'Brien Cup multiple times, is very clear in this regard, and even if the two sides are almost the same, this kind of tournament experience can be a key factor in the final outcome of the game.

"Yes, Rick is absolutely right, a game doesn't mean anything, it's just the beginning of a long series, the Pistons have far exceeded our expectations, and this series is going to be a tough series." Contrary to Rick Carlisle, Larry Bird, as the winning side, is very low-key, and the usual big mouth is simply like two people. Therefore, after Larry Bird finished speaking, the scene of the press conference immediately quieted down, including Rick Carlisle, everyone at the scene looked at Larry Bird with a strange face, with Larry Bird's character who likes to bump into BI and is good at playing psychological warfare, not only did not take advantage of the situation to output a wave, but played a low-key role.

Larry Bird looked at the group of reporters in the audience with a smile on his face, but in fact, his heart was very unsteady now. Originally, after the All-Star Game, Larry Bird was already preparing for the playoffs, not only consciously adjusting the players' bodies and game status, but also letting Reggie Miller and Mutombo, the two veterans, start to take turns to rest, and reduce the playing time of the main players, but Meng Xu suddenly exploded, not only scored 82 points in the game with the Knicks, but also led the team to win 18 consecutive victories all the way, so that Larry Bird's hard-working adjustment plan came to fruition, and after this wave of consecutive wins, The state of the Pacers has fallen into a trough again, and it has not been pulled back until now, if the level of ABCD is used to divide the state of each player in the team, except for Mutombo and Reggie Miller, the two old ballwards, who are now in the best state of A-level, most of the remaining players of the Pacers are now C, originally Larry Bird also counted on gradually mediating the state in the playoffs, and when the finals begin, the state of the whole team will be adjusted to the best, after all, none of these teams in the East can pose a threat to the Pacers, But now Larry Bird finds that he obviously underestimates this group of ambitious guys, especially Rick Carlisle, his "little brother", I am afraid that he has long planned to give himself a head start in the playoffs, and after the Pistons reversed the Magic, Larry Bird has a little sense of crisis now.

Soon, Larry Bird proved that his sense of crisis was correct, on May 13, 2003, the Pacers lost 103-96 to the Pistons at home, compared to the previous game, the Pacers' state has improved, and the Pistons have played more and more organized compared to the previous game, they no longer simply pursue a slow pace of the game, and iron-blooded defense, but after the opening, they started to attack the Pacers, and at the end of the first quarter of the game, 36-25, leading the Pacers by 11 points, And after withstanding waves of counterattacks from the Pacers, they saved the lead until the last moment, and after winning the Pacers on the road, the Pistons also made the series 1-1, winning an away Pistons, and unknowingly had an advantage in the series.

After finishing two home games, the Pacers will travel to Detroit with a 1-1 scoreline, and the Devils' home court, which is counted in the entire league, against the Pistons on two road trips. After losing a home game, it means that the Pacers can't afford to lose these two games on the road, even if they can't win two games in a row, at least they have to win one away game and move back to home court advantage, if they are not careful, lose two away games in a row, the Pacers' playoff journey this season is probably over, after all, not every team can stage a miracle of 1-3 reversal.

On the afternoon of May 16, after the Pacers arrived in Detroit, they rushed headlong into the Auburn Hills Palace Arena for pre-game adaptation training. But while they maintain a relaxed mentality, they obviously do not have the high fighting spirit and belief in winning last season, maybe for some of these players, a championship trophy is enough, but for Meng Xu, not to mention a championship, even two, three is far from enough.

"Guys, I know what you guys think right now, we're the defending champions, we're number one in the regular season." In the interval between breaks, Meng Xu gathered all the Pacers players together, as the boss and leader of the team, when the team fell into an unfavorable situation, and the head coach Larry Bird did not stand up very abnormally, instilling chicken soup for the soul in the team, Meng Xu had to stand up, to be honest, this is the first time Meng Xu has lectured his teammates since he came to the Pacers, looking at the teammates who are standing neatly in front of Meng Xu under the leadership of Reggie Miller and Jermaine O'Neal, Meng Xu also enjoyed this feeling very much at the moment: "These achievements are not only the glory of our heads, but also a burden that binds us, although the strength of the Pistons cannot stop us from moving forward, but in front of us, not only the Pistons, but also the Nets, the Lakers, or the Spurs, they are far stronger than the Pistons, and even stronger than us, so each of us must show 120% of the state to ensure that we defeat every opponent in front of us." ”

When Meng Xu spoke, the training ground instantly became silent, and all the Pacers players were listening attentively to Meng Xu's words, although Meng Xu did not blame anyone by name, and there was no intention to blame them in his words, but when Meng Xu's words fell, many of the Pacers players in front of Meng Xu still bowed their heads in shame. In the first two games, the Pacers played unsatisfactory as a team, and none of the two games scored more than 100 points, not only lost the demeanor of the top five teams in the league's offensive firepower, but even the rebounding that the Pacers are proud of was suppressed by the Pistons, losing an average of 4 rebounds per game to the Pistons, Ben Wallace faced the Pacers' two big interior lines, and grabbed 35 rebounds in two games.

Seeing these expressions of his teammates in front of him, Meng Xu also showed a satisfied smile, as long as they can recognize their mistakes and have shame, I am afraid that those guys who are obviously not performing well and are dragging the same as 2580,000, as soon as you criticize him, he will jump out and accuse you, and everyone will not be able to get off the stage.

"We have only one goal, which is to defend the title and bring a second championship to Indiana, but it's not something that I can do alone, or any of you, we are a team, we are a whole, and each of us has to do our part and do our part to make sure we achieve these goals."

After Meng Xu said these words, the training ground, which was still silent just now, became lively again under the leadership of Jamal Tinsley and Jermaine O'Neal. Seeing these teammates in front of him who were full of fighting spirit again, Meng Xu's tense mood finally relaxed.

Mutombo, who was standing with Reggie Miller, saw the scene in front of him, and couldn't help but start to clapp, and shouted twice. As a veteran of the league for more than ten years, although Mutombo joined the Pacers this season, unlike those ambitious young people, as he gets older, Mutombo has long lost the so-called ideals, and now he only has that obsession with the championship. But after this season of fighting side by side, especially after that wave of consecutive wins, Mutombo found that his mind was alive again, not only for the obsession of the championship, but also for the sake of these teammates who fought side by side.

"I can finally rest assured now." In the player's tunnel in the distance, Larry Bird, who was silently watching all this on the training ground, nodded with satisfaction.

Meng Xu is a championship player and a leader who can inspire his teammates by leading by example on the court, but all along, impassioned speeches and passionate motivation are not what Meng Xu is good at, plus since Meng Xu came to the Pacers, everything has been smooth. Therefore, Larry Bird is also worried that if one day, the Pacers come to a different style of head coach after him, and without himself on the side to help him deal with things off the court, Meng Xu is likely to find a way to unite his teammates around him, and even when there is a problem within the team, he can't find a suitable way to deal with it.

Well, now that everything seems to be solved, Meng Xu has enough influence on this team and enough prestige in this group, and the top to bottom of this team, whether it is veterans like Mutombo and Reggie Miller, or rookies like Nn Hilario and Tyshawn Prince, they all maintain enough trust in Meng Xu.

I want to say a word about it, I saw some book friends put forward opinions, thinking that I was exaggerating Billups, in fact, I really didn't blow Billups, in this book, I blew Duncan, I blew O'Neal and Kobe, and I blew Maddie, but I just didn't blow Billups. In the series of the Pistons' reversal of the Magic, in addition to Big Ben's excellent play, Hamilton and Prince's successful defense of Maddy, the most important thing is Billups's super play, the series G6 and G7, Billups scored 40 points in a game, 37 points in a game, G6 and Maddy's matchup, and in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter of the tie-break, he scored 9 out of 11 points for the Pistons team, which all happened in real time.